Some Dark Age inspiration

I picked up a copy of Martin Hackett's 'As Told in the Great Hall', which looks like a great resource for Dark Age wargames from the end of the Roman era through to Hastings.

There are rules included, although at first glance they seem to be quite old school.wih lots of tables and modifiers although I haven't had a chance to properly read through yet.  Might inspire me to dig out my Romano-British and Saxons.

There's been another lull in gaming over the last of months due to work, holidays and family health but I had a great return to the table top care of Eric the Shed who hosted an epic Greek/Macedonian battle...

and then a couple of weeks later an excellent game of Ankh.  Looking forward to getting a new acquisition on the table later this week.

Dux Bellorum - 1st game

So having painted my Late Romans and dug out my Late Saxons masquerading as Early Saxons (and some Vikings... shh.. don't tell anyone), it was time to actually get them on the table.

The rules are Dux Bellorum from Osprey which are yet another great set in their blue book series of rules.  They are pretty simple to play but have a suitable Dark Age feel.  I've always felt battles in this period should really emphasise the influence of the individual Commanders and these rules reflect this really well with the use of Leadership Points (LPs).  These allow you to improve the chance of activating a unit, add dice to an attack, cancel hits and enable units to interrupt another units activation... all very useful and of course as the action heats up you don't have enough LPs to go round.  If a unit routs you also lose a LP and this shift in the balance of leadership can make a real difference.

Our battle pitched a Romano British force defending against some raiding Saxons.  As neither of had played before we went for a straightforward scenario without too much complicated terrain although in hindsight the river was a bit of a pain.

The Saxon Horde...

...and the British

The British have Shieldwall infantry which are less aggressive but harder to damage.  A legacy of their Roman training and discipline I guess.  Combined with the LPs allowing hits to be cancelled this can make them pretty tough to damage.  And of course the Brits have Cavalry.

The Saxons are all infantry and have the 'advantage' of an uncontrolled advance.  This means they can charge further  than the British Shieldwall and are more aggressive but they have to charge unless you can make them fail a Bravery test (handily the LPs can be used to help fail tests as well as passing them!).

The  neat lines at the start of the game broke up as the fighting started

The Britons had 3 skirmish units of archers vs my 1 Javelin armed unit.  I'd read people complain that skirmishers are very weak in these rules but the British archers were deadly, combining fire to cause lots of casualties.  To be fair I probably tried ignoring them for too long and should gave tried driving them off sooner.

A very messy fight at the river

Andrew, commanding the Britons, used his cavalry to try and turn my flank, forcing me to split my  warbands and it quickly became obvious that the fight at the river was going to be a sideshow with the battle being decided between the Cavalry and the Saxon warbands on my left flank.

The 2 Warlords slug it out

The fights became very scrappy with a lot of to and fro but the British Cavalry began to press hard and the Saxons units began to disappear, shedding Leadership Points in the process.  The cavalry was also pretty beaten up by this point and could have broken but some careful use of LPs by Andrew stopped me causing enough casualties and eventually the Saxons reached 50% losses and began to melt away from the table.

The rules were very impressive and felt just right for this period.  It was great to actually get my newly painted figures on the table and into action and I've just spotted that Gripping Beast have been previewing the artwork for their forthcoming Picts which would be a great addition.

Hold the front page!

In a piece of shock news I've actually painted something!!!

For months now I've really struggled to get motivated to paint but a rare moment of determination has resulted in me painting a box of Gripping Beast Late Romans as part of my Arthurian project.

I knew I'd already made a start on this project but when I checked I discovered it was over a year since I'd painted up some cavalry!

I've splashed out on a copy of Dux Bellorum which look like an excellent set of rules and my Saxons and Vikings will masquerade as Early Saxons and Britons (just don't look too closely!).  I reckon one hairy Dark Age warrior looks pretty much like another... I know the Vikings don't quite gel but in a crowd they should pass muster.

The Romano-Brits will even get an outing in a game in a couple of weeks... of course, as new figures they're doomed to lose!!

Very satisfying to actually have got something painted again after a long lay-off.

Brittania - 9 months later

Back  in August last  year I recieved my Kickstarter copy of the PSC boardgame Brittania and quickly managed to play a game with my good friend Anthony (who also had a copy).  And that was it.  It was a game definitely designed for my gaming group to play during the winter months when we tend to retreat to a warmer room and concentrate on boardgames... but of course 2020 happened and we never managed any of that.  There's a post about that 1st game here

So finally I've managed to get the game out of the box and give the 2 player version (Duel Brittania) a proper outing (we only managed a couple of turns first time round).  I'd never played the game when it was 1st published but it strikes me as a sophisticated version of Risk with Dark Age armies.  What's intriguing is that kingdoms rise and fall as the eras progress with players racing ahead in victory points in some periods before falling behind  in others.  In the 2 player game one player controls various Angles and Saxons, along with the Scots and Irish.  The other player has the initial British kingdoms such as Reghed, the Welsh, the Picts etc and later take command of the invading Norse and Danes.

The full game starts with the Roman Invasion and goes all the way through to the arrival of the Normans.  In the quicker Duel version the game begins in 350CE and ends before the Normans show up.  The Duel map is also simplified and there are some rule changes compared to the full game, although I still haven't worked out how major these are.  

The main difference is that during turn #1 the Romans defend until their turn when they disappear, being replaced with a mix of smaller kingdoms.  In each turn nations receive new armies if they have enough territory to maintain them,  before adding any specific troops and leaders for that era.  So for example the Scots may receive some extra troops and Macbeth in a late turn.  Specific events also happen at appropriate points so Reghed,  for example, were able to construct a Burh or fort at Dumbarton Rock.  Annoyingly for me, Arthur put in an appearance for several nations (I guess everyone thinks they have a claim on Arthur!) and can cause brief mayhem with his powerful cavalry.  Thankfully he disappeared as quickly as he appeared!

I was playing the Anglo Saxon side so began the game as an invader, initially raiding from the sea or from Ireland.  As the game progressed my armies stop raiding and occupy regions and in turn are attacked by new invaders in the form of the Norse and Danes as well as any surviving British kingdoms.  Success ebbs and flows and while it can feel like one player is racing ahead, that can all change in the next turn as the historical dynamics change to suit the next era.

The authors reckon 1.5 to 2 hours for the Duel version but we took a lot longer...to be fair we were rattling through the latter turns though so I reckon we'd be a lot faster next time.

In our game I was very lucky with dice rolls (and Callum was equally unlucky) and I built up a pretty unassailable lead, helped by destroying a lot of the Saxon Shore forts early in the game and gaining extra points.  The map on the final turn actually looked pretty historical with the Saxons holding central and SE England with the Danes in the North.  The Welsh pretty much held all of Wales and there were a scattering of minor kingdoms left although not all necessarily where you'd expect to find them!

The end of the game...
I was red/blue and
Callum was purple/black

The game definitely lived up to my expectations...we both came away with definite ideas about things we'd do differently next time, and its one we'd both replay.

A painting update

 

So it's been a couple of weeks since my flurry of Samurai games and we haven't managed anything since then.  Things have been pretty busy... an unexpected promotion at work just before Xmas has meant that work has become very hectic and I'm now doing my original job plus a lot more on top.  I'm not complaining...I work in the charity sector and it has been hit very hard over the last year as fundraising and volunteering have understandably not been a top priority for everyone, so it's good to be as busy as I am and to see the charity growing and developing despite everything.  It does mean I'm spending hours each day staring at the laptop though, so my appetite for doing much else in the evening has taken a bit of a hit.

Despite this I've managed a bit of painting.  First up is one of 2 artillery pieces added to my Wars of the Roses army, ready for the next game (whenever that will be)...of course the gun is doomed to explode as soon as I try to fire it but it's nice to have on the table!

At Xmas I was given a set of Gripping Beast  Dark Age Cavalry by my wife, the first element of my Arthurian project and they have now been painted, apart from their shields.  These will be added once my transfers from Little Big Man Studios arrive.

I've also just a box of Late Roman Infantry thanks to a discount from Northstar Miniatures so these will be next on the painting list